Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Misterfido 09-28-07, 12:24 AM	I hate clerics. I think they're overpowered and dull. They have almost fighter-like combat ability and potent spellcasting (especially in the right hands). They are generic healers, carbon copies from person to person with the rare exception of evil clerics (who lose their primary role in the party as healer), unless you include their extra spell lists, which add more complexity to the game then value. I hate clerics. So I redesigned them, with Unearthed Arcana as my starting point (but far from the ending point). I want suggestions on how to further streamline abilities, balance abilities (as you will see, there is a LOT of them), and whether I've overlooked anything. Simply because retyping it all when I have a PDF right here would be insane, I'll just... upload the PDF. Wee. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I7SBBJU3 A few comments: I wrote the mana system because I wanted a psionic-like system for clerics, without it being psionics. I purposely wrote for there to be one huge, flashy cleric ability per domain, so that everybody is constantly reminded of what the cleric is a priest of. Ah, and lastly, a misprint: In the 'divine will' section, when it says 'cleric must have hit dice twice a creature' and so on, it should say 'cleric must roll a hit dice value twice that of the creature' Mm, and I think I'll edit the hivemind ability to also allow the players to, at their option, move and act on the same initiative as the cleric. Better teamwork that way.
Rhialto 09-28-07, 03:22 AM	I tried the link. All I saw were a bunch of adverts in Chinese.
Misterfido 09-28-07, 03:52 AM	Odd. Should bring you to the relatively standard Megaupload front page with, next to the big word "MEGAUPLOAD", "Please enter ___" and a box to type in... hit 'download', wait for the countdown 3/4 down the page to hit 0 and hit the download link it provides. If none of that rings any bells... I really don't have any idea. That page isn't even chinese...
Ra-Tiel 09-28-07, 06:15 AM	Interesting. ;) Just some comments: #1: You should put some restrictions on the "Alternate Form" ability from the Animal domain. As written, a level 1 cleric can select a dire bear as his animal form. #2: The "Resurrection" ability from the Death domain is a bit unclear. Its prerequisites are "level 4", but it starts working only at level 5 and higher? What time does it take for a level 4 cleric to come back? #3: The "Disintegrate" ability from the Destruction domain seems a tad powerful, doesn't it? Basically you're giving the cleric disintegrate as a (sp) ability every 1d4 rounds but it cannot affect creatures. However, a character can still wreck havoc with it as it still affects worn objects and items normally. #4: The "Stone to Lava" ability from the Fire domain is also very powerful. Considering the damage lava can deal to creatures, granting the cleric the ability to turn stone into lava for 1d4 minutes is very strong. Even more as you don't mention how much stone is transformed, and if creatures caught within the area get a Ref save or something to get out. #5: The "Dispel" ability from the Magic domain should really have a level prerequisite. Otherwise you have level 1 clerics running around and dispelling the heck out of other casters, while they in return must wait until they are level 5 to gain access to dispel magic. #6: The "Extra Movement" ability from the Travel domain should be restricted to some forms of movement. Otherwise, it'd be very tempting to take burrow or climb as the additional movement form just for the mechanical advantages, as flight is very easy to come by with other means. #7: The "Weapon Specialization" ability from the War domain rubs me wrong. At least you should put in a requirement of "level 4", so that a cleric does not get one of the fighter's signature feats at level 1. Also, could you perhaps explain the mana loss from spellcasting a bit more? I just couldn't imagine how it would work from the table in your file. :confused:
Misterfido 09-28-07, 10:21 AM	I think I need to adjust either the mana amounts of the mana drain, but as it stands: The cleric in my group has a daily mana allotment of like 17 at level 9. Level 9/6 = 1 (rounded down). So he can cast 1st-level and 0th-level spells to his heart's content, because at level 9, I expect the damage they can do is minimal. 17 mana / 2 = 8. So if he casts 8th-level spells (impossible) he drains 1d6+1 mana points. So his mana's down to 16. Anything between the two conditions above merely loses 1 mana. This means he can cast a lot of spells basically care-free until, say, when he has 10 mana left. If he casts a 5th-level spell (half his remaining mana) he loses 1d6+1, instead of just 1. It's like a power point system which only cares about how much energy he has left when he starts running low. And it was somewhat inspired by the d20 Modern Wealth system. Final notes on that... oh, say he could cast 9th-level spells and had 9 mana left. He would lose 2d6+1 instead of 1d6+1 (because he's exceeding his mana left). Perhaps it's too convoluted/too open to exploit, however at the very least it's shown to be quite balanced compared to a high-powered evoker at the table.